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Sean D. Reyes
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Utah registered nurse convicted of sexual assault

November 8, 2018

On October 25th, 2018, Adam Tae Kyun Lim, a Utah registered nurse, was found guilty of sexually assaulting several of his patients. 

It was in April of 2016 when the AG’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) Division received a request to investigate a nurse, Lim, who had been reported to the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL) from a local hospital.  

It turned out that over a 10-year span, between January 2006 and January 2016, several allegations had come up against Lim claiming that he sexually assaulted eleven patients who were under his care in multiple hospitals and nursing homes across the state.

Unfortunately, the facilities at that time did not find the patient complaints to be credible, primarily because the patients were medicated and thought to be confused. Most of the facilities disciplined Kyun Lim and counseled him on how to avoid patient confusion. It was the final two sexual assaults reported in 2016 that a hospital finally recognized the pattern, fired the defendant, and reported the case to DOPL.

By the time MFCU received the case, three of the victims had passed away and statutes of limitation had run on four of the remaining allegations, leaving four counts that could be charged. During the investigation, they found that the similarities of each allegation were remarkable.

Each patient:

  • Had undergone serious medical treatments,
  • Was under the influence of pain medications,
  • Was receiving nursing care from Lim at the time of the allegations.

Lim continued to assert that he did nothing wrong. Rather he claimed this was a case of patient confusion, patient prejudice about male or foreign nurses, or simply a case of inadvertent touching. The jury heard from an expert witness who explained the various medical issues and procedures so the jury could understand the evidence. They determined that Lim was not simply an inept nurse, but a sexual predator who had taken advantage of his position of trust as a registered nurse and had preyed upon extremely vulnerable women. 

A jury trial, held from October 23-25, 2018, in front of Judge Vernice Trease resulted in convictions on all three counts:

  • Count I: Object Rape, 1st Degree Felony
  • Count II: Object Rape, 1st Degree Felony
  • Count III: Forcible Sexual Abuse, 2nd Degree Felony

Lim will be sentenced on December 7, 2018. 

The case was expertly handled by Assistant Attorney General Kaye Lynn Wootton of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Division in the Office of the Attorney General.

You can track the coverage of the case below. 

Salt Lake Tribune: 12 women accused a nurse of groping them. But for a decade, Utah hospitals kept hiring him.

Deseret News: Two lawsuits claim hospitals never warned state about nurse

Salt Lake Tribune: ‘It’s sick to me’: Three women testify that Utah nurse groped them when they were hospitalized

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah nurse found guilty of sexually assaulting three patients